Let It Snow (The Hope Falls Series) (38 page)

As she turned, her eyes alighted on a broad chest that—oh my, yes—filled out his white t-shirt quite well. Her mouth instantly filled with saliva like one of Pavlov’s dogs.
Hmmm,
she thought,
so this is what they mean when they say something looks ‘mouth-watering.’
She totally got it now! In an effort to avoid drooling, she swallowed, but to her own ears it sounded like a shockingly loud gulp.

Slowly, Katie moved her eyes up the length of the solid, strong, statue-like figure standing mere inches away from her. She paused momentarily to admire—against her will—the smooth olive skin at the base of Jason’s neck. She couldn’t help herself. It just so nicely contrasted with the stark white color of the t-shirt’s v-neck it was peeking out of.

Unconsciously, she licked her lips and saw the pulse on Jason’s neck jump. Her eyes darted up to meet his golden brown ones, which caused the aforementioned tingling places to start pulsing.

Katie felt her heart beating so hard she thought it might beat right out of her chest. And the mantra began.

You can breathe. Just breathe. Breathe in and out slowly. You can breathe.

*

As Jason stood in front of Katie, who was wearing a simple grey tank top and blue jeans, he was momentarily paralyzed with shock at the effect she had on him.

Suddenly he was back in Mrs. Garcia’s kindergarten classroom.

It was the first day of kindergarten FINALLY. Best. Day. Ever.

Putting his backpack in his cubby, he felt a brush of something that tickled his arm. When he swatted his arm, he felt the softest, silkiest thing he had ever touched.

When he looked up to see what it was, he couldn’t believe his eyes. There she stood, a real-life angel! Rays of sunlight from the window streamed through her long blond hair, and she was looking down at him with the biggest blue eyes Jason had ever seen in his life.

The earth stopped spinning and everything stood still. Nothing existed except this amazing creature. She slowly reached her hand to her neck and flipped her long blond hair behind her back as she placed her backpack in her cubby.

Jason could not speak. This was a new phenomenon for Jason, as the spoken word had always been one of his greatest gifts.

Since the time Jason was able to put two words together, he always knew just the right thing to say to either get out of trouble, get what he wanted, or just put a smile on the faces of the women in his life. Even before he was old enough to speak, he had exuded a natural-born mojo. The first word ever used to describe Jason in the nursery was charming. All of the nurses in the infant care ward would fight over who could hold him. Even as a newborn, he had a twinkle in his eye and a little smirk on his lips that the opposite sex just couldn’t get enough of. But in this moment, five-year-old Jason could not even remember how to say, ‘Hi.’

But luck was on his side, as it usually was. YES! He was assigned to the same table as this heavenly being. Jason could barely sit still next to her. He fidgeted and couldn’t keep his eyes off of her.

She, on the other hand, sat totally composed next to him, completely ignoring him, working on their first assignment, the name paper.

Jason had tried all morning to get her attention somehow, but to no avail. When she finished her paper, she looked so proud of it as she taped it to the back of her seat.

When she sat down again beside him, he had the sudden urge to pinch her just to see what she would do. Anything to get her attention! He was desperate to have her acknowledge him!

But reason prevailed, and he realized that pinching her wouldn’t be the best course of action. He had to keep thinking. Before another plan could take shape, however, she was out the door to recess.

Finally, genius struck! As he sat in his chair while all the other kids were at recess, he decided he would ‘redecorate’ her name paper to give her a nickname. That would be a way he could start to talk to her
—
an ice breaker of sorts. He knew that would get her attention. And it would be special! If he gave her a special name paper decoration, she would know for SURE how special he thought she was!

He looked at her name page, which so beautifully read ‘Katie,’ and the first thing that came to Jason’s mind was Kit Kat—the best candy bar in the whole world! He quickly changed her paper to read just that.

He had not expected any of the other kids to notice it when they came in from recess
—
or to think it was funny. It was supposed to be a special, inside secret between him and his blond angel.

In fact, to be honest, he had completely forgotten that any other kids were even in their class. No one existed in the room for him but Katie.

But after the look on Katie’s face when the other kids were all gathered around her desk in giggles, Jason knew he had made a huge mistake.

Okay, he had to fix this and quick. The only thing he knew to do was try to relieve some of the tension by stating the obvious. It was part of his charm. Jason was always being accused of saying what everyone was thinking. Instinct kicked in and he simply said, “I think this is your seat, Kit Kat.”

He was shocked to see a look of anger and embarrassment that suddenly appeared on Katie’s face. He didn’t know how things had gone so terribly wrong or why his charm and wit had not gotten the smile that always appeared on the opposite sex’s face whenever he spoke. But the one thing he did know was that he had never met anyone else who made him feel the way this girl sitting next to him made him feel.

And he hadn’t known it at the time, but he never would.

The same feeling that paralyzed him upon seeing her for the first time in kindergarten class washed over Jason now as he stood in front of Katie. His world stopped spinning and she was the only thing that existed.

Katie had grown into the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on. Standing five foot three, with a petite figure that had curves in all the right places, she still had incredible long blond hair and the most intoxicating blue eyes in existence.

And when he looked at her, he still saw his angel.

THE HOPE FALLS CHRONICLES

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Excerpt from Sweet Reunion

As Amanda moved the bite-size chicken pieces and chopped vegetables around the sauté pan in front of her, her head swam with conflicted emotions. Was it always going to be this way? If Justin did decide to stay and run the adventure resort with her, was her consciousness going to forever exist in such a state of unbalance?

Karina, Sam, and Lauren had gone to visit Karina’s grandmother, albeit reluctantly. They hadn’t wanted to leave Amanda alone, but Amanda had insisted, coming just short of physically shoving them out the door.

“I need to get my head on straight!” she had told them, “The only way I am going to accomplish that is with some serious soul searching and contemplation. And, barring that, a little ‘come to Jesus’ meeting with myself. Trust me! An hour alone will do me a world of good. I’ll make dinner, and be a whole new woman by the time you get back.”

So, the rest of the Fabulous Four had departed amidst skeptical expressions and admonitions to call if she needed anything.

And now Amanda was by herself, cooking and contemplating, and not a whole lot seemed to be moving forward. She had started out feeling confused and vulnerable, and that was squarely where she still found herself. It didn’t help that she had had ZERO hours of sleep the night before! Maybe it was time to try the ‘come to Jesus’ meeting.

She heard a knock at the back door which led into the kitchen, and turned around to see the very source of her confusion and angst standing there, his handsome face framed in the glass pane of the exterior door like a finely wrought portrait.

A tremor ran through her from head to toe, but she quickly reminded herself that she could not show him her weaknesses. She again thought of her sleepless night, and noticed how well-rested he looked. She couldn’t let him see she was coming apart at the seams!

No, she was only going to show him a completely strong and together facade. She quickly pasted a smile on her face, striving for as natural an expression as possible, but truthfully not even caring if it came off as slightly artificial – as long as her face didn’t betray the roiling emotions just below the surface, it could look as plastic as a mannequin’s for all she cared.

She crossed to the back door, opened it, and stood aside, inviting him in.

“Is this a bad time?” he asked as he entered.

“Not at all,” she assured him. “The girls went down to see Karina’s grandmother, and I’m just cooking some dinner.”

“How is Renata doing?” Justin inquired.

“Oh, you know Renata. As indefatigable as ever. I think she’ll outlive us all, and be working on twelve different community projects as she does it.”

“She’s a rock,” Justin agreed, “Karina’s lucky to have her.”

“True. All of Hope Falls is lucky to have her, when you think about it. So, what were you up to today?”

“Oh, just cleaning out the bunkhouse and getting it habitable. It brought back a lot of memories of living there.”

“I bet.” Amanda said, and sitting between them, making the air electric, was the unspoken memory of the last time they had been in the bunkhouse together. The last time they had seen each other at all.

She quickly turned back to the stove and focused her attention on the chicken sizzling in the pan.

Justin moved behind Amanda, close. So close that she could feel his ragged breath on her neck and in her hair. The nearness of him paralyzed her. Her vision swam and her body felt on fire, and he wasn’t even touching her.

“Amanda…” he said, his voice husky with emotion, with regret. With desire? Was that just wishful thinking on her part?

“Amanda…” he started again, and then trailed off again.

Slowly, so slowly that she almost couldn’t tell if she was really doing it or if it were only her imagination, she turned her face up to his. She could barely breathe. Their mouths were less than an inch apart, and their eyes were locked on each other. She felt as if she would melt on the spot, or possibly explode.

“Yes?” she whispered. With the one small scrap of awareness of her surroundings that she had left, she realized that her breathing had grown ragged as well, as if in answer to Justin’s.

“I…” he started, then took a deep breath and tried to begin again, “I just…”

And then, displaying a sense of timing so horrendous that it belied the flawless sense of rhythm she possessed which was one of the factors which made her a brilliant musician, Karina called from the front door, “Yoo hoo! We’re home.”

Amanda drew in her breath sharply as Justin retreated across the kitchen, but couldn’t manage to access her vocal chords to summon a response. She heard Karina’s voice calling as she came down the hall, “Did you hear me? Lucy, I’m home!” she hollered in her best Desi Arnaz impersonation.

Amanda looked up as Karina entered the kitchen and shook her head to clear it, but realized that the truth of what had just happened must have been written all over her face when she saw a sly smile spread across Karina’s face. “Lucy, you’ve got some ’splaining to do,” she grinned, drawing out the impression.

“What?” Amanda asked, doing her best to maintain an innocent expression as Lauren and Samantha entered the kitchen behind Karina.

As soon as Lauren laid eyes on Amanda’s face, she rushed over and took the wooden spoon out of her hand, taking over the job of sautéing the chicken and veggies. “Oh my goodness, Amanda! I knew we shouldn’t have left you to cook dinner for all of us right now. Seriously, go grab a water, sit down and relax. Your entire face is flushed, you’re getting overheated.”

Karina continued to grin her evil little grin, and added an eyebrow waggle for emphasis. “Oh, yes, it is quite hot in here, isn’t it? Very, very hot. On a completely unrelated note, by the way, how are you today, Justin?”